Familial hypokalemic periodic paralysis

Metabolic myopathies. A diagnostic evaluation

This article briefly reviews the initial approach to the patient suspected of having metabolic myopathy. Diagnostic highlights include relevant points of history, physical examination, blood work-up, forearm ischemic exercise test, electrophysiologic testings and muscle biopsy. The diagnostic evaluation is discussed in detail in separate articles.

Dysfunction of sensory nerves during attacks of hypokalemic periodic paralysis

Reversible electrophysiologic abnormalities of sensory nerve function were found by chance in three patients with hypokalemic periodic paralysis, a disorder previously considered to affect the function of muscle membranes only. A formal, prospective study was therefore conducted. Serial nerve conduction studies were done in ten additional patients. Amplitude of sensory action potentials was significantly smaller during paralytic attacks, but did not differ from controls after normalization of serum potassium concentration. These apparently novel findings might be explained by previous electrodiagnostic studies either not involving the testing of sensory nerves at all, or not being repeated after recovery from an attack. Involvement of sensory nerves in hypokalemic periodic paralysis is suggested to arise through dorsal root ganglia having an incomplete blood-nerve barrier and sensory neurons being particularly vulnerable to derangements affecting nerve cell metabolism. Neuronal inexcitability is postulated to occur consequent upon possible inactivation of the sodium-potassium pump by the low concentration of extracellular potassium. In patients with acute areflexic limb weakness, the diagnosis of hypokalemic periodic paralysis should not be excluded by abnormal results of sensory nerve conduction studies.

Investigation of muscle disease

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Surface EMG and muscle fibre conduction during attacks of hypokalaemic periodic paralysis

Surface EMG, muscle fibre conduction velocity (MFCV), muscle force, and biochemical variables were investigated in a 13-year-old boy with familial hypokalaemic periodic paralysis during and after three attacks of paralysis. After normalisation of the serum potassium values, strength rapidly returned to interictal values, but the integrated EMG and to a lesser extent the MFCV recovered more slowly. These findings suggest that a complete electrophysiological recovery is not necessary for a restoration of muscle force and that the pathogenetic defect is localised in the muscle membrane.

Case-of-the-month: autosomal recessive myotonia congenita: marked muscle weakness in a 16-year-old boy

A 16-year-old boy had a 10-year history of stiffness in leg muscles. There was marked weakness of neck flexors, shoulder abductors, and ankle dorsiflexors, with hypertrophy of most muscle groups and both action and percussion myotonia. The parents were normal. Motor unit potential mean duration was reduced in the weakest muscle (tibialis anterior), and a biopsy of the same muscle showed only minimal abnormalities. Exercise and repetitive stimulation (30 Hz) of the tibialis anterior disclosed a decline in the compound muscle action potential that appeared to correlate with the muscular weakness.

Electromyography in infants and children

Electromyography (EMG) is of proven value in the diagnosis of acute and chronic neuromuscular diseases in infants and children. When this technique is combined with nerve conduction studies, including repetitive nerve stimulation studies, it is often possible upon completion of the studies to identify the disorder as one of nerve, neuromuscular junction, or muscle. The purpose of this article is to review the principles and techniques of EMG in infants and children and to describe the EMG findings in several neuromuscular disorders.

Periodic paralysis and the sodium-potassium pump

Analysis of the pathophysiology of hypokalemic paralysis, as it occurs in barium poisoning, chronic potassium deficiency, and thyrotoxicosis, suggests that these disorders may have a similar mechanism. An increased ratio of muscle sodium permeability to potassium permeability reduces the ionic diffusion potential, while the resting membrane potential is sustained by an increase of Na-K pump electrogenesis. The result is that potassium entry (the sum of active and passive influx) exceeds potassium efflux; this causes a large shift of extracellular potassium into muscle until the Na-K pump turns off, leading to depolarization and paralysis. The primary defect in familial hypokalemic periodic paralysis, as in the example of barium poisoning, may be a marked reduction of muscle permeability to potassium.

Paralisia periodica familiar: estudo de oito casos

Foram estudados oito pacientes com Paralisia Periódica Familiar sob os aspectos clínico, hidro-eletrolítico, eletrofisiológico, histológico e terapêutico. Houve predomínio significante em pacientes do sexo masculino. A idade média do início da moléstia foi de 15 anos. As manifestações clínicas foram concor-dantes com as referidas na literatura. Todos os pacientes tinham a forma hipocalêmica exceto um que evoluiu com hipercalemia. Alguns pacientes (21,4%) tinham natremias no limite superior da normalidade enquanto em um número igual de pacientes as natremias estavam elevadas, o que sugeria liberação de aldosterona. Os achados eletrofisiológicos foram concordantes com os da literatura. O estudo histológico de músculos realizado em cinco pacientes foi normal em 30% deles e, naqueles com crises repetidas e freqüentes, foram encontradas atrofias de fibras musculares. Foram feitos tratamentos preventivos, e nos pacientes com hipocalemia foram administradas doses suplementares de potássio em solução aquosa de 10-25% diariamente.

Cardiac dysfunction in a patient with familial hypokalemic periodic paralysis

A 19-year-old white man with familial hypokalemic periodic paralysis developed evidence of cardiac dysfunction during a episode of flaccid paralysis. This consisted of elevated total creatine phosphokinase (CPK), an increased myocardial fraction of CPK (myocardial band), alteration in the lactic dehydrogenase isoenzyme pattern, severe bradycardia, and evidence of left ventricular dysfunction. These findings, in conjunction with selected cases from the literature, suggest the possibility that cardiomyopathy may be a heretofore unrecognized complication of this disorder.

Hypokalemic periodic paralysis. A single fiber electromyographic study

The neurophysiological findings obtained with standard electromyography (EMG) and single fiber EMG (SFEMG) in a case of hypokalemic periodic paralysis (HoPP) are reported. During the period between paralytic attacks the only abnormalities consisted of scanty fibrillation potentials and, with SFEMG, a fiber density increase. In the first stage of an induced paralytic attack the most striking feature was decrease in fiber density, slight increase in jitter with several blocks. These results indicate a failure of the membrane surface to propagate an action potential. In some fibers the block is likely to be permanent, thus explaining the decrease in fiber density. The jitter increase is due to a slight abnormality at the synaptic site or to a variation in the propagation velocity of the muscle fiber.